Conventional incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps, and neon tubes have long been used to illuminate many large-scale commercial and public signs. The market is now, however, demanding larger displays with the flexibility to customize display sizes and colors which are not possible with these older technologies. As a result, many displays now utilize LEDs in their design because LEDs consume less electrical energy than conventional light sources, and possess a much longer lifetime with lower maintenance costs.
LED technology is currently being applied to large-scale display applications, such as outdoor or indoor stadium displays, large marketing advertisement displays, and mass-public informational displays. Many of these large-scale applications are dynamically reconfigurable under computer control. In addition, some large-scale animated displays that are capable of displaying video imaging are now being produced.
Furthermore, there is a demand in the market not only for two-dimensional (2D) displays, but also for three-dimensional (3D) displays. Technical challenges exist in forming a display system with the flexibility to form various 2D or 3D shapes and, furthermore, in providing control of such a system. What is needed is a system of individual picture elements that are configurable to form large-area LED displays having 2D or 3D shapes.
An example of a configurable large-area display is found in reference to European patent No. 1.057.220, entitled, “Tiled electronic display structure.” The EP 1.057.220 patent describes a tiled display device that is formed from display tiles having picture element (pixel) positions defined up to the edge of the tiles. Each pixel position has an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) active area that occupies approximately twenty-five percent of the pixel area. Each tile includes a memory that stores display data and pixel driving circuitry that controls the scanning and illumination of the pixels on the tile. The pixel driving circuitry is located on the back side of the tile and connections to pixel electrodes on the front side of the tile are made by vias that pass through portions of selected ones of the pixel areas that are not occupied by the active pixel material. The tiles are formed in two parts—an electronics section and a display section. Each tile has a glass substrate on the front of the tile. Black matrix lines are formed on the front of the glass substrate. The tiles are joined by mullions that have the same appearance as the black matrix lines.
While the EP 1.057.220 patent describes a configurable large-area display formed of tiled arrays, the dimensions of the individual components, i.e., tiles, are sufficiently large that custom shapes, including 3D shapes, are not possible. Furthermore, the control system of tiled display of EP 1.057.220 patent is not suitable for controlling and reconfiguring individual picture elements.